Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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The Order of Business is No. 1, motion regarding Trade Marks (Madrid Protocol) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 – referral to committee, to be taken on conclusion of the Order of Business without debate; No. 2, Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2024 – all Stages, to be taken at 12.15 p.m., with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister on Second Stage not to exceed ten minutes, that of group spokespersons not to exceed ten minutes and time may be shared, and that of all other Senators not to exceed five minutes, with the Minister to be given no less than five minutes to reply to the debate, and with Committee and Remaining Stages to be taken immediately thereafter; and No. 3, motion regarding the earlier signature of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2024, to be taken on conclusion of No. 2, without debate.

Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the increased provision of funding in budget 2025 for housing. The substantial funding that has already been applied by the Government of in excess of €5 billion a year will be increased to more than €6 billion in 2025. The public funds will go to delivering thousands more affordable homes. An additional €1.25 billion has been allocated to the Land Development Agency to deliver affordable homes on public lands using lands previously underutilised. There is an additional €2 billion to deliver more than 10,000 social build homes and, importantly also, there is an extension of the help-to-buy scheme and extra funding for the first home scheme. It is important to recognise that in every week of August alone, these schemes helped more than 650 first-time buyers to be approved for a mortgage. This is 150 first-time buyers every working day in August. These schemes are providing significant help to first-time buyers. It is also welcome, and I am very pleased to see, that renters are being further supported. We introduced the renter's tax credit two years ago. It stands at €750 at present, and with an increase of €250 this year every renter will get a €1,000 renter's tax credit. This is €2,000 a year for a couple if they are renting and €4,000 for a couple renting over the next two years.

Last week I raised in the Seanad an issue I have been raising for many months. This is a request for the Government to fund free HRT. I am delighted to say that in this week's budget for 2025, provision has been made to provide every woman who needs it and wants to avail of it with free HRT from January. This is a very welcome development. Not only is it good for their health but it will be good for their pocket. For many women it can be as much as €1,000 a year.

I want to mention the escalation of war and genocide in the Middle East. It is haunting everyone. It is hard to escape it. I renew our country's plea and call for an immediate ceasefire, release of the hostages and recognition of the independent Palestinian state. I commend our brave soldiers who are performing a service not only for our country but an international service and a peacekeeping service in the most challenging of conditions. Their lives are under threat. They are highly competent and highly trained. We have confidence in them. We are thinking of them and their families at this time. We are working and hoping for a peaceful resolution to the troubles in the Middle East.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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It is good to see the Acting Leader in the role today. I would like to further analyse and discuss budget 2025. I am particularly pleased there is a significant commitment to investing in wastewater and in upgrading wastewater systems throughout the country. This is one of the big problems in planning and building houses, particularly in rural parts of the country. We are putting through a planning Bill that will deal significantly with the judicial review delays which, in County Clare alone, have held up 290 houses in Ennis for years. It has gone before the courts although permission was granted by Clare County Council and An Bord Pleanála. The planning Bill is important and the other big issue is wastewater treatment.

I look at County Clare as a typical example of counties the length and breadth of the country. I sat in the office of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, in October or November 2020. We were promised a pilot scheme for small villages of approximately €50 million. The scheme was announced three years later and two projects in Clare were selected. So far, four years on, not one sod has been turned in either Broadford or Cooraclare. Broadford people have spent a significant amount of time and money preparing for the scheme. When the scheme is completed, houses will be built. It is similar in Cooraclare and Carrigaholt, where development is considered premature in the absence of an upgraded wastewater treatment system. Doolin in County Clare is probably one of the busiest tourist attraction areas in the country. It is from where most people travel to the Aran Islands. People are trying to build houses and hotel accommodation in Doolin but all are deemed premature simply because the wastewater treatment system is not up to standard.

Billions need to be spent on the wastewater system in this country. I welcome the fact that some of the Apple money will be dedicated to it. I would like to see a timeline. I would like to request of the Acting Leader that we have the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in the Seanad to outline his revised plans and timelines and the projects he will fund through Irish Water for 2025, 2026 and 2027. If we are to keep developing our economy in the manner in which it has developed, and if we want to meet the housing targets the Taoiseach has mentioned of 50,000 a year for the next five years, it will only happen if the infrastructure is in place. It will only happen if we have upgraded wastewater treatment facilities the country. The houses cannot just be built in urban areas. They have to be built in urban and rural areas.

Rónán Mullen (Independent)
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I second everything Senator Conway has just said.

When the presidents of our universities speak out, we should listen. They are people who are not prone to negative hyperbole. In fact, they have the important task of putting the best foot forward when marketing their universities and colleges nationally and internationally. When the president of UCD warns the sector is at risk, the provost of Trinity College warns of a quiet and gradual decline and the chair of the governing authority of UCC says the viability of Irish universities is under threat, we should be alarmed. When we hear these concerns echoed in supportive editorials in The Irish Times, the Irish Examiner and the Business Post, we can be reassured it is more than just the usual pre-budget posturing. Looking at this year's budget, as the Irish Universities Association has observed, there is much to welcome. Those of us who remember the Cassells report and the saga since then will realise there is something monumental in the Government at long last introducing a multiannual approach to core funding, while also addressing the ludicrous situation of not fully funding our universities to cover pay inflation driven by public sector pay awards. The increase in the PhD stipend is also good news. Postgraduate study and poverty should never have to walk hand in hand. Credit where credit is due but there is a problem. The Government itself acknowledged in 2022 that the sector is underfunded by €307 million per annum in its core funding needs.This means that between 2022 and 2029, even after Tuesday's budget, there will be a €1.3 billion shortfall in core funding for the sector. The figures announced on Tuesday are a public admission that the €307 million gap will never really be bridged. When Funding the Future was launched, we were told by the then Minister, Deputy Harris, that it would settle the question on higher education funding. It was much trumpeted and much heralded but it now seems that it would have been far more honest of him to have titled that document "Funding the distant future based on figures from the distant past". For a country that prides itself on education, we have a strange way of showing that pride. There is still hope that the yet to be announced supplementary budget will deliver the €70 million or so needed to cover unfunded pay awards. I acknowledge what has been addressed for 2025 for pay increases. However, there remains underfunding from previous years in respect of pay awards.

We should also resent that universities are being forced to justify themselves on the basis of their economic worth. President Higgins has spoken eloquently about the danger of this and the fact that it can lead to "the quiet capture of universities, overtly or covertly, by powerful elites and corporate interests". Universities are to be valued not just for their utilitarian contribution to the economy, positive that it is, but for being a cornerstone and foundation of an open, democratic and learned society. While I welcome what is positive in the budget, our universities will not be able to retire the begging bowl just yet. At a time of plenty in our public coffers, that is a real shame. I ask for a debate on this issue as soon as possible.

Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)
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Like others, I wish to refer to the provision of appropriate infrastructure to assist in the development of our housing targets. I am deeply disturbed by the lack of progress on a number of sewerage schemes that were set up as part of a pilot project in Clare. The Minister fought the battles within his Department to get the schemes at Broadford and Cooraclare moving. I and others drafted the policy position behind it but it received a level of negative interest from departmental officials. The Minister pushed it through and made the announcement. Now, it is bogged down between the Department and the local authority. It is going around in a circle.

It often amazes me when some functions of this State decide to do something, all caution can be thrown to the wind. I do not want to harp on about the cost of this outrageous bike shed outside here, in respect of which apparently nobody had to go through any hoops. However, the €5 million that was set aside for Cooraclare and Broadford is bogged down in a value-for-money, cost-benefit analysis - more looking up and down the road. It needs to get done and it needs to get done now. Once Ministers have taken decisions, they need to be far more forceful in insisting that certain people buried in the bowels of the administrative apparatus move and let it happen. We all know there are officials in the Department for whom a pilot project and all that goes with it require a hell of a lot more work and oversight, but communities need such projects. Politically, we fought the battle. Politically, we won. Politically, the money was set aside, but the wheels grind slowly within the organs of the State except when it is something that suits certain people within.

Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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Like other Senators, I wish to comment on the issues relating to Lebanon and that part of the world. The scenes we are seeing are absolutely frightening. It is something we thought we would never again see. The past year has been really terrible there. What has been happening in Gaza has been absolutely frightening, particularly with the loss of life and injuries to children there. Last week, I came across a figure stating that 30,000 children in Gaza have lost limbs. That is unbelievable. We have never seen anything like it in our entire lives.

Now, Lebanon has come into focus. Our troops who are working there very competently and capably have been affected. There were manoeuvres literally within 2 km of their base in recent days, which is very significant. It is a very troubling situation to say the very least. Of course, the American election ties into that. We will see how that play outs or not with regard to trying to find a solution for what is happening in Lebanon.

I want to put on the record my absolute horror at what is happening. It is beyond belief and beyond mankind's understanding that things have been torn apart in that part of the world. There is frustration. Within my family, my girls in particular are looking at this stuff and wondering where the world is going and when will it stop. I do not know if I am despondent. I just do not know the pathway by means of which this war can end. The mayhem, the chaos and the loss of life have been absolutely frightening. Israel needs to step back from the brink. I do not know where this will stop. Matters could go all the way unless Israel steps back. From our point of view, all we can ever do is send our best wishes to our peacekeepers in Lebanon. Perhaps the Cathaoirleach might do that. They need to be acknowledged for their great work. We need a renewed focus to try to achieve peace in that part of the world.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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We all concur with the Senator's remarks regarding the excellent men and women who serve on peacekeeping missions, particularly in Lebanon. The Taoiseach has said he has spoken with the Lebanese Prime Minister. We hope that all our men and women are safe.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I welcome the Acting Leader's presence. I wish to raise an issue I have raised over the past two days. I am again requesting a debate on the hospitality sector. No doubt everybody here has received the same emails I have regarding the hospitality sector - namely, pubs, hotels and restaurants. We received a lot of calls to our office yesterday. On the first day after the budget, I acknowledged the enormous and valiant work the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, did in advocating for the sector in a fair and open manner. He is very much a man of his word. He is very supportive of enterprise, which falls within his brief. I again commend him on his valiant efforts. Clearly, it just could not be brought over the line. As I am not in one of the Government parties, I do not know the ins and out of it. However, I am calling for a debate.

The Acting Leader will be conscious that a number of these organisations are nominating bodies to this Senate. That is very important and we should not ignore it. However, that is not the reason we should be talking about this sector. Those in it want us to represent them. Many of our local authority members, our city and county councillors, run restaurants and other small businesses in the hospitality sector. It is interesting that a very high percentage of counsellors are self-employed and that, in turn, a high percentage of them operate in the hospitality sector.

I ask for a debate with the Minister because he has another plan. All is not lost. He has other ideas he would like to share. We should listen to him and respond to those in a sector that has nominating rights to this House. While I know all Ministers are under pressure, if a slot could be found, even on a Thursday afternoon and should it prove suitable, then let us have the Minister in. Let us have a respectful discussion about how we can find alternatives to support the sector.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the news that Limerick Civic Trust has been announced as Limerick person of the month of October. It is a competition which acknowledges people who carry out good deeds and works within the community. Limerick Civic Trust was founded by the late Denis Leonard. It has been instrumental in transforming Georgian buildings and other historic buildings. At present, it is working in Mount St. Lawrence graveyard to restore the church there and turn it into a crematorium which would be very appropriate. It is an old church that had fallen into ruins. It carries out some wonderful work. It has also been very good to artists. I know that artists were highlighted and acknowledged in the recent budget. Limerick Civic Trust has been fantastic in promoting not only established artists but also new artists. I wish it all the best under the leadership of William, who runs the People's Museum of Limerick for which it was given the award.

Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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Senator Fitzpatrick began the Order of Business by talking about the substantial allocation on housing, and particularly highlighted the help-to-buy scheme and the extraordinary purchasing by first-time buyers. The Senator also talked about the LDA. The LDA is really coming into its own now. It took time to gather information before being able to carry out works. As I come in here every morning, I pass the Donore Avenue site where groundworks are going on. Over 500 homes will be started there. We see the fruits now of all of the groundwork of the LDA over the past couple of years. The housing committee did a lot of work around that. I acknowledge Senator Boyhan's work and all of our work on that. It is fantastic to see it. Senator Fitzpatrick amplified that. It is fantastic.

The Senator also mentioned the free HRT initiative, which will be lead to fantastic savings for those women who require HRT. A newspaper article this morning makes the point that not every women needs HRT. This scheme should not be seen as giving the imprimatur to the idea that every woman should go on HRT. Many women do not need to do so. Also, I note that there is still a cost to GPs and pharmacists. That said, an annual saving of over €1,000 is fantastic.

Senator Fitzpatrick, like others, spoke about the incredible work of our peacekeeping forces, particularly in Lebanon, and reflected how we think of them. A long time ago, I was involved in supporting their families, through counselling, from the Curragh. I am conscious of the sacrifices made by families at home who are worried about their loved ones. I am sure they are worried when they see the news and watch the headlines. The Cathaoirleach has been asked to write a letter - it is important - to express our thoughts. I think we would all concur on that. I will raise that with the Leader also.

Senator Conway raised the issue of wastewater, which was also raised by Senator Dooley. Both of them expressed their extreme frustration at the delays but also mentioned the allocation in the budget and the Minister's drive to ensure that Irish Water is delivering. Senator Conway has raised the matter today, but Senator Cummins has also been raising within the housing committee and here in the Seanad for a number of years the delays in the provision of housing caused by the lack of water infrastructure in rural areas. Those of us in urban areas are dealing with really antiquated water pipes, sewerage, etc. Individual homeowners are being caught for the cost of their replacement where Irish Water is slow to act. Having a debate on that is very important. I will raise it immediately with the Leader to ensure we facilitate it. We need to know what the plans are and when the money set aside will be delivered.

Senator Mullen raised the universities and noted that there has been a decline. It is heard with great sadness. At my parliamentary party's think-in, it was mentioned that our universities are slipping out of the first 100 and the top 50. We have seen that this is happening and it is important that we invest as a consequence. The Taoiseach, as the then Minister, and the current Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, have a vision and are determined. They are sensitive to the fact that we have research going on in the universities and we want to make sure the intellectual property of that stays in Ireland and is owned by Ireland. That is crucial to our defence as a nation and our support as a nation. I completely concur and agree that we need a debate. We need to know what the supplementary budget will be and how that will manifest. I do not want to pre-empt what will be in that, but it is reasonable that we have the Minister in to discuss such matters and that we follow through on that.

Senator Lombard and others raised concern about what is going on in the Middle East. Certainly, it is frightening. As we approach the anniversary of the horrifying incidents and the sheer massacre that occurred on 7 October 2023, we think of those who are held hostage. Since then, there has been a slaughter of the innocents. There have been children murdered, in my view, in a genocide that has been absolutely and utterly horrific. Senator Lombard tenderly pointed to the fact that our children are looking at this. Our children are identifying with children of their own age who are being maimed and slaughtered and seeing how horrific that is.

Senator Boyhan raised the value of hospitality and mentioned that councillors and Members of this House work in and come from the hospitality sector. The Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, put in a valiant effort, as I knew he was going to. I believe the 9% VAT rate is the correct rate. The current system is incorrect for the hospitality sector. As Senators, we need to press that home in representing the people and organisations that write to us, including the nominating bodies and our own councillors who are very much highlighting that to all of us. The Senator is absolutely correct. There is a plan to support businesses, but it seems ridiculous that we are taking money from them with one hand, only to give it back to them with another hand. There needs to be a complete overall of the VAT rate for hospitality and it should not be in competition with what we are spending in social protection or elsewhere. It should be taken out of that debate altogether. I think they were part of the balancing that goes on. The Minister has a clear vision and clear determination. I thank the Senator for acknowledging that. It is important. It would be productive for us to hear what the Minister has to say. I will absolutely support that.

Senator Maria Byrne, who is always a champion for Limerick, mentioned that the Limerick Civic Trust has received the Limerick person of the month award. That is fantastic. Organisations all over the country are preserving our heritage and ensuring our Georgian history is preserved and restored for people to enjoy. I think of the museum on Henrietta Street, which is just a fabulous step into the past and what it looked like. Our heritage and the support of the arts that can occur within that is always fantastic. We congratulate the Limerick Civic Trust.